NEW PRODUCTS and INNOVATIONSTough rigs for tough conditions in TurkeyOct 2010

Sandvik News Release

New drill rigs and a new generation of Sandvik drill bits are providing up to 50% fuel efficiency savings
on the Kavsak Bendi hydropower project in Turkey. The project is an all Sandvik affair with all drill+blast work carried out with Sandvik drilling machines and drill bit consumables.

Sandvik DX 700 crawler rigs

Extra-tough RT300 drill bit

The new Sandvik DD320 drilling jumbo

Turkish contractor AGE Construction mobilised the contract with two new Sandvik DX 700 top-hammer crawler drill rigs in conjunction with the company's new generation of extra-tough Sandvik RT300 type bits fitted with spherical buttons.

The contractor is also using a number of existing Sandvik rigs from its fleet, and a newly purchased Sandvik DD320 drilling jumbo for tunnelling works.

Subcontractor on the project, Projima Tunnelling, is also using two Sandvik drilling jumbos from its own fleet to construct part of the underground works.

Enerjisa Power Generation Company, one of Turkey's largest energy suppliers, appointed AGE Construction as main contractor for the construction and hydromechanical works of the 180MW Kavsak Bendi power project on the Upper Seyhan River near Adana in southern Turkey.

Main elements of the project are two diversion tunnels of 531m and 330m long each and 7.9m inner diameter; an RCC dam to create the supply reservoir; and a 2,263m long headrace of 9m inner diameter.

Remote Kavsak Bendi job site in southern Turkey

The geology of the region consists mainly of shale, limestone and sandstone through which drill+blast excavations are being supported by rockbolts and shotcrete.

Foundation works began in October 2008 and the project is targeted for completion by 2012.

Sandvik Mining and Construction Turkey has supplied the new drilling machines and consumables to the project via its office in Ankara. The company has signed a complete tools supply contract with AGE for the lifetime of the project that covers both bench drilling and tunnelling tools. Under the agreement Sandvik has guaranteed to keep sufficient stock in their Ankara warehouse to support the project,

and on the site itself the company has provided a converted container that acts as a store for new drill bits and a workshop bits are sharpened.

Sandvik's new RT300 type uniface design bench drilling bits were selected for the project. Longer life, higher penetration rates and cleaner holes are features of this new generation of drill bit which uses grade XT48 (Extra Tough) cemented carbide, the hardest and toughest carbide ever made for the spherical and ballistic buttons on the RT300 bits.

AGE has added the two Sandvik DX 700 crawler-mounted drilling rigs to its existing extensive Sandvik fleet, and is using them for drill+blast work at the quarry that is supplying fill for the dam. The DX 700 and RT300 combination is being used to drill holes of 92mm in diameter at depths of up to 33m with the top-hammer rigs. AGE has also recently purchased a brand new Sandvik BR 7013 hydraulic breaker from Sandvik distributor Alftaek, which joins the four other Sandvik breakers in the AGE fleet.

AGE's Project Manager Sezai Azizoglu says that the two rigs are particularly effective at working on the difficult terrain. "We are relying on the rigs to keep the production cycle moving," he said. "Sandvik equipment dominates our fleet, and we are using the rigs with complete confidence."

Erdinc Cetin, Surface Drilling and Tunnelling Manager of Sandvik Mining and Construction Turkey said that progress at Kavsak Bendi, in a situation where a high volume of the Sandvik RT300 bits are being used, has revealed that the combination of hard-materials technology with more effective cutting structures, greater rigidity and good flushing capacity is resulting in greater fuel efficiency for the drill rigs.

"We can say that the rigs are using about half the fuel that would be consumed if we were using the down-the-hole drilling method, despite the hardness of the ground," he said.

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